[Math] Displacement vectors

physics

You walk $53$ m to the north, then turn $60$ degrees to your right and walk another $45$ m. Determine the direction of your displacement vector. Express your answer as an angle relative to east.

So I did pythagorean theorem and got the adjacent side to be $28$. Then I did inverse tan and got the angle to be $50$ degrees. Help please?

The answer is $63$ degrees.

Best Answer

If we are starting from point $(0,0)$ then after the first step we are in $(0,53)$ and after the second we got to $(0 + 45\sin \alpha, 53 + 45 \cos \alpha)$. $\sin \alpha = \frac{\sqrt 3}{2}, \cos \alpha = \frac 12$, so the resulting point is $(\frac{45\sqrt3}{2},\frac{151}{2})$ and, as our starting point was $(0,0)$, this is also the displacement vector.